Anybody heard of him? I was looking through an old, signed playbill from the 70's from a show I saw when I was a little kid. He was filling in for the magician (Doug Henning, I think) in The Magic Show. I wondered what happened to him? I'm not even sure I have his name spelled correctly.

Jeff

From Bart Whaley's "Who's Who in Magic":
DePauls, Peter (USA:1953- ) Learned at age 8. Pro since age 13. Stage act of mime & magic, with 3 world tours to credit. Star of the road-show version of Doug Henning's "The Magic Show"

That is it..
Rennie

Posted: Dec 12, 2006 10:12am

I need to correct myself, the last name is DePaula & not DePauls

I worked with Peter years and years ago at Burt Green's magic shop in Hollywood. Geez, 29 years ago (ACK!). He was a very good stage magician and really nice guy. At the time, I was just starting in magic and asked Burt if I could work there for nothing, just to be around it. Peter showed me the ropes and a lot of good coin work. I am grateful to him for that. I lost track of him after he invited me to see him at at a show in Santa Monica....I miss those days.

The name is DePaula.

After Peter De Paula'sinital success in the touring production of "The Magic Show" in the Doug Henning role, he based his operations in the Hollywood area. As mentioned above, he worked for a bit at Burt Green's (as did Earl Nelson). Peter developed a solo act without the illusions and did a one man show in the hat and hare Pub at the Magic Castle.

His next real success came when he developed his mime and magic combination with the partnership of Katlyn. It was an innovative act where she played a robot assistant. it used small effects and music quite well. He and Katlyn broke up the act, as she had several ideas she wanted to develop that would not fit within the cabaret act they were doing. She went on to her own success in magic.Together they had done several national and international tours.

Peter's next efforts were in developing and converting his existing material to a mid 1980's hip avant garde act with very trendy costumes. The act was primarily manipulation set to contemporary music. He worked clubs around Los Angeles with this act.

Sometime later, I lost contact with Peter and was pleased to run into him at a Computer trade show in Los Angeles. He was not performing much but had shifted his interest into computers. He was helping startup companies with certain programs. By now it was around 2000 and I last saw Peter in Hollywood Magic around 2005 when he said he was moving back to NYC to run his family's restaurant.

Peter is a solid performer and a genuinely nice guy who always kept things in perspective and with good humor.

BTW-
I too saw him (twice!) in "The Magic Show"!

I too saw Peter in the Magic Show at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles. I had almost hoped I saw Doug in the show, but I like DePaula and the show. I did see Doug twice with his touring show of his television specials, but still wished I could have been him in Broadway to see the original Magic Show.

I'm glad someone brought this up because I also wondered what happened to him. He was a great mime as well as a magician and missed watching him perform.

He gets a nice mention as performing in honor of Charles Dickens – for the Dickens Fellowship of New York – in today's NYTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/19/nyregi......eer.html

I was surfing, and "found" this thread.

I THINK that Peter did a school tour, for Dakota Assemblies, in the '90s.

I saw Peter dePaula perform at the Magic Cellar in San Francisco in the late 1970s (January 7, 1978 to be exact). He performed an excellent mime/magic act with an assistant. I assume she was Katlyn, mentioned earlier in this thread. It was a highly stylized act with both performers moving like robots. At one point during a linking ring routine, the ring Peter was holding somehow became linked to something Katlyn was either wearing or holding. It wasn't obvious until they started to move in different directions and were pulled back together. She tilted her head up to look directly at the audience conveying as much of a look of surprise and disbelief as a robot could muster. It was a delightful moment that caught everyone off guard. It must have created an impact because I can still (mostly) remember it almost 40 years later. I can also remember one of the pieces of music they used. An odd funk song by Parliament called "Night of the Thumpasorus Peoples" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_QfO7g1YsI). Haha! That was the only time I saw them perform and always wondered what became of them as they were very, very good.

Peter DePaula will appear Thursday, October 4, in "The Magic Show the Musical and Me," an event in which he provides a behind-the-scenes view of his performance in the lead role of the national tour of The Magic Show, directly after the musical created a sensation on Broadway. Peter spent about a year touring in the role originally created by Doug Henning, bringing the show to cities large and small across the U. S. Peter will talk about how he was cast in the role, how he learned the part, perspectives on performing large illusions, stories from the road, and what it was like to be at the center of a production that helped change the perception of magic. He will also discuss the New York magic scene at the time he was cast in the show and perform and teach close-up tricks among those that he would perform on television when promoting The Magic Show during the course of its tour.

The event is presented by the Parent Assembly of the Society of American Magicians. Details are below

The Magic Show the Musical and Me with Peter DePaula
Thursday, October 4, 8:00 p.m.
The New York Theosophical Society, 242 East, 53rd Street, New York City.

Free to members of the Parent Assembly, $15 for non members and $10 for S. A. M. members who are not members of Parent Assembly. Doors for the event will open to the public at 7:45 p.m., following the business meeting of the Parent Assembly. The price of the ticket can be credited toward dues in the Parent Assembly for anyone who submits an application the night of the event.

For more information: https://www.facebook.com/events/322710208277943/

or:

www.magicsampa1.com

It's a nice lecture on Oct,4th. Peter shared a lot of stories when he did the “magic show”. how he casted the show; how he learned the illusions; how was the tour...Great experience.